coachacola

The West Virginia head coach confirmed today they Jeremy Johnson is leaving the program: [quote]Coach Bill Stewart confirmed on his radio show last night that third-string freshman quarterback Jeremy Johnson is leaving WVU.  Johnson has been dealing with homesickness all semester, and at one point this season updated his facebook page to say he was transferring to Baylor.  While that post has since been removed, it seems a likely landing spot for Johnson, since it is much closer to his hometown of Houston, Texas. [/quote] [Hidden Content]

In an interview a month or two ago Woodard specifically talked about the path Lamar wanted to take starting up the program.  He said that from talking to different folks at Lamar, around SETX, and from other recent startup programs, they decided to build up the program fast and not take the slow approach.  I think "young Christopher" is well aware of what South Alabama is doing, and the article is just contrasting the two approaches.  Not sure what the big deal is.

[quote name="TexasTerror" post="873727" timestamp="1286972855"] If it is a current, recent QB who could still potentially play... former West Hardin star Tyler Copeland? Unless you were taking Brian Bell or Tyrik Rollison, do not think anything else would resonate with the Bearkat faithful. Sounds like typical Lamar over-hype job here. [/quote] Bearkat faithful?  All 10 of them?

[quote name="TexasTerror" post="873731" timestamp="1286973178"] SPIN... SPIN... SPIN... I guess young Christopher is not aware of what South Alabama is doing compared to Lamar. It is much easier to schedule when you are a counter (see Lamar) compared to not being one (see South Alabama), especially when teams need at least seven Div I wins to qualify for the playoffs... Their clock truly begins next year - year three. See their schedule then? I'm not saying Lamar's schedule is worse than South Alabama's, because it isn't - but that was just a bogus and ill-informed article that makes for good locker room material. [/quote] ::) ::)

The home schedule does suck.  I hate all those cupcakes on the schedule.  It's time for Roc to get rid of all those sub-D1 teams and bring in teams that fans will actually want to see Lamar play.

The last I heard there were about 1700 tickets left, but that was a day or two ago. I do think USA should be favored to win this game, although someone from the USA forum stated that their leading rusher is out for the season and their QB suffered a concussion their last game.  What's the status of J.J. Hayes?  I'm guessing he'll play this Saturday.

[quote name="TexasTerror" post="873272" timestamp="1286914855"] [quote author=sleepy link=topic=74245.msg873232#msg873232 date=1286911307]Terror...............your not really on here bragging about how Fritz out recruited a first year program are you?  Very weak!!!!  [/quote] Do you realize what your offensive coordinator left us with? The cupboards were bare and we have the [b]youngest team we've ever had at the FCS leve[/b]l... [/quote] Yet over on katfans.com they were talking about all the JUCO and FBS transfers that Fritz brought in that have really made a difference for SHSU.  Looks like Fritz isn't above a quick fix.

Is the guy that wrote this preview a katfans.com member?

I think Terror resents knowing that even when Sam Houston wins nobody outside of katfans.com cares one bit.  He does the same thing with Texas State.  It's an odd obsession he's had for years.  Go to any forum where he posts a lot and you'll find he doesn't have many friends.

I think athletes have to meet minimum NCAA academic requirements and then individual schools may have higher standards.  Hopefully Hall can get enrolled somewhere and make the grades, be at Lamar or somewhere else. I'm really pleasantly surprised that Lamar is raising their admission standards again.  They were really lagging behind a lot of other peer schools but they seem really serious about closing the gap.  The lamar.edu homepage also shows that the capital campaign has surpassed the $70 million mark.  This will help Lamar down the road if they wish to move up to a better conference because academics are also part of the equation.

Just for fun, the Southland is rated higher than the Sun Belt!  Lamar is included in the 1-AA independents, right below the Sun Belt. [tt]       CONFERENCE          CENTRAL MEAN    SIMPLE AVERAGE  TEAMS      WIN50%   1  PAC-10              (A) =  82.66      81.92  (  1)    10      82.12  (  1)   2  SOUTHEASTERN        (A) =  77.46      77.22  (  2)    12      77.26  (  2)   3  BIG 12              (A) =  76.80      76.88  (  3)    12      76.97  (  3)   4  BIG TEN            (A) =  75.80      74.99  (  4)    11      75.21  (  4)   5  I-A INDEPENDENTS    (A) =  71.89      71.85  (  5)      3      71.85  (  5)   6  ATLANTIC COAST      (A) =  71.60      71.69  (  6)    12      71.65  (  6)   7  WESTERN ATHLETIC    (A) =  70.56      70.79  (  7)      9      70.62  (  8 )   8  MOUNTAIN WEST      (A) =  70.47      70.70  (  8 )      9      70.68  (  7)   9  BIG EAST            (A) =  69.35      69.80  (  9)      8      69.75  (  9)   10  CONFERENCE USA      (A) =  64.43      63.99  ( 10)    12      64.06  ( 10)   11  BIG SKY            (AA)=  63.00      62.03  ( 12)      9      62.32  ( 12)   12  COLONIAL            (AA)=  62.61      62.54  ( 11)    10      62.57  ( 11)   13  MID-AMERICAN        (A) =  62.32      61.71  ( 13)    13      61.90  ( 13)   14  SOUTHERN            (AA)=  60.67      60.08  ( 14)      9      60.22  ( 14)   15  MISSOURI VALLEY    (AA)=  59.41      59.91  ( 15)      9      59.84  ( 15)   16  GREAT WEST          (AA)=  58.08      58.21  ( 16)      5      58.20  ( 16)   17  SOUTHLAND          (AA)=  56.01      56.55  ( 17)      8      56.36  ( 17)   18  SUN BELT            (A) =  54.70      55.13  ( 18)      9      55.08  ( 18)   19  I-AA INDEPENDENTS  (AA)=  52.01      50.99  ( 20)      6      51.21  ( 20) [/tt] The Southland: [tt]HOME ADVANTAGE=  3.91          RATING    W  L  SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 10 | VS top 30 |  ELO_CHESS  |  PREDICTOR    60  Stephen F. Austin    AA =  71.53    4  1  61.47( 137)    0  0  |    0  0  |  71.71  59 |  69.94  75 117  Sam Houston State    AA =  61.96    3  2  60.74( 141)    0  0  |    0  0  |  63.14  104 |  59.35  122 134  Texas State          AA =  58.78    3  2  61.68( 132)    0  0  |    0  0  |  60.62  120 |  55.45  149 149  McNeese State        AA =  56.97    2  3  62.04( 129)    0  0  |    0  1  |  60.13  125 |  52.11  172 162  SE Louisiana        AA =  54.80    2  3  53.69( 192)    0  0  |    0  0  |  53.23  167 |  54.90  154 179  Central Arkansas    AA =  51.73    3  2  50.96( 198)    0  0  |    0  0  |  49.80  185 |  52.15  171 192  Nicholls State      AA =  49.49    1  4  66.15(  89)    0  0  |    0  0  |  52.57  170 |  44.11  207 202  Northwestern State  AA =  47.11    2  4  59.35( 155)    0  0  |    0  1  |  47.96  197 |  44.68  204 [/tt] Independents: [tt]HOME ADVANTAGE=  3.91          RATING    W  L  SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 10 | VS top 30 |  ELO_CHESS  |  PREDICTOR  139  Georgia State        AA =  58.02    4  2  46.82( 221)    0  0  |    0  0  |  60.63  119 |  53.82  160 145  South Alabama        AA =  57.54    5  0  45.58( 227)    0  0  |    0  0  |  63.02  105 |  49.97  183 153  Old Dominion        AA =  56.49    3  3  54.17( 188)    0  0  |    0  0  |  54.38  156 |  57.12  139 181  Lamar                AA =  51.48    3  3  62.98( 122)    0  0  |    0  0  |  55.57  151 |  44.76  203 216  Savannah State      AA =  44.73    0  6  64.10( 110)    0  0  |    0  0  |  46.52  205 |  41.02  222 231  NC Central          AA =  37.68    2  3  43.77( 230)    0  0  |    0  0  |  35.46  233 |  38.22  229[/tt] [Hidden Content]

[quote name="TexasTerror" post="871313" timestamp="1286733917"] Next year is their first year... even though they have about 13 games in their back pocket heading into their game against Lamar... Last year and this, they were [b]unclassified[/b]. You guys are FCS Independent this year, South Alabama is NCAA unclassified. The win or loss counts in your W/L column, but it is kind of an odd situation of how they have handled this process... [/quote] Not sure why you're rambling on about classifications.  South Alabama is still undefeated no matter how they are classified.  They did beat Nicholls State 39-21 a few weeks ago in Mobile, which was their first game against a FCS school.  They haven't played any real road games yet.  Looking at their roster they do have a lot of juniors and seniors on the team, including some FBS transfers.  This should be a good game.

I don't think LU had any turnovers, although in the first quarter Langston dropped a sure interception for a touchdown.  With Hayes out and Lamar working on their running game it's good to see the defense actually shut down the other team.  Hopefully they can get more guys healthy for next week's game against South Alabama.  Will there be another sellout for that game?

Lamar basketball still gets good support even though they haven't been that good for years.  If the football program can stay competitive and not go 2-9 every year then they'll get good support.  Also, unlike those minor league "pro" teams that have come and gone, Lamar football is more of an event and there's a lot of people in the area with ties to the university.

Terror posted this link on another forum.  Here's what the McNeese fans are talking about concerning the SLC and McNeese's future: [Hidden Content]

Last year South Alabama played a basically JV schedule and they had great crowds.  This year they've only played one FCS school and that was Nicholls State.  I think those attendance numbers are great for who they are playing.  Now we'll see what happens when they start losing against tougher competition.  But since they'll be playing in the Sun Belt, if they average around 20K they'll be doing pretty well.

Did anyone catch this quote in the article on page 2? [quote]But such early returns are not always the best measure of a football program’s impact. Last year, only [b][size=12pt]two of 125 FCS football-playing schools made a profit[/size][/b] on the sport, according to the NCAA.[/quote] Looks like more schools make profits at the FBS level than the FCS level.

South Alabama has been enjoying some great fan support.  The Mobile metro area is over 600K now and they've been hosting some bowl game there for a long time so they were probably ready for a local team.  They've already lined up Navy, Southern Miss and a few others to play there in the coming years.  South Alabama has around 15K students I believe so they're not much bigger than Lamar.  It should be a great game next week against them, I hope there's another sellout for it.

I think there's ton of conference reshuffling still to come.  The MWC seems to be unstable.  The CUSA, WAC and Sun Belt are all pretty spread out conferences that I think makes it hard to build rivalries.  There's also some FCS schools in the eastern US that want to move up.  I think it's way too early to even guess where Lamar will end up.

Lamar is going to rely heavily on ticket sales to support the football program so they need to do all they can do keep the stadium full.  Season ticket sales are important because on bad weather days when there's a sparse crowd at least those seats have been paid for.  I'm sure televising the games locally is very much about promoting football and Lamar doesn't make much from Fox 4, and any short term loss of ticket sales will be made up by getting people out to see future games.

South Alabama is actually a Sun Belt team, but they did beat Nicholls State a few weeks ago so they will be tough to beat.

Here's a related article you guys might find interesting.  Terror posted this on another forum. [quote]It is long past the time when the Louisiana Tech Athletic Department, particularly the football program, should have given up on its delusions of mediocrity. It’s not just about the won-loss record as Tech moves into its 10th year in the Western Athletic Conference, though that, too, is hard to ignore. There are also the economics that are dragging down not only the once proud football program, but academics as well. We’ll get to the economics later. [/quote] [Hidden Content] There's always risks involved in taking your athletic program to the next level.

Looks like he didn't qualify at Tulsa: [quote]Running back Derrick Hall will not be playing at the University of Tulsa this football season. Hall did not meet academic transfer standards and is no longer at TU. [/quote] Read more from this Tulsa World article at [Hidden Content] Wonder if this opens the door for him to play at Lamar next year?

Here's the chart: [img][Hidden Content]] Here's the link to the website: [Hidden Content] I don't think anyone at Lamar wants to jump up to the FBS level for at least 5 years so it's probably pointless to argue over that.  But the SLC is a bottom feeder conference, and by being in it long term will hurt all of Lamar's athletic programs IMHO.  I don't think Lamar will have the financial problems is had back in the '80s and '90s so it should be able to compete in a better conference down the road.

The lowly New Orleans Bowl that the Sun Belt champion plays in drew more viewers than the FCS championship game last year.  I hope you like traveling out west or to the northeast on a weeks notice because that seems to be what happens to the SLC teams in the FCS playoffs.